Sherlock Series Four: Everything You Need To Know About The New Series

Summer’s over, hot water bottles are out, and M&S is selling Advent Calendars. It’s officially time to get excited about Christmas and brilliant wintry TV. A Doctor Who special, Christmas Bake-Off, and new HBO masterpiece, Westworld. Still up in the air though, is Sherlock, coming “2017”. With more details released every week, BBC One is keeping us guessing about the fourth series. With the past two series debuting in January 2012 and 2014, fans are keeping their fingers crossed that series four will do the same. Here’s everything we know so far about series four of Sherlock.

When’s Sherlock back on?

There are no exact details as of yet, but promo around the new episodes states that series four should be coming in 2017. As the past two series and ‘The Abominable Bride’ special have all aired in January, we can probably expect the fourth series to follow the tradition.

Do I need a TV license to watch Sherlock?

Yes. If you are watching Sherlock in the UK you need a TV license to watch both live TV and BBC iPlayer.

Have we seen any pictures from the new series of Sherlock?

Yes! “The boys will be back soon”!

Some fans are worried Sherlock’s coat may have changed in this episode. Creator Steven Moffat assures us it hasn’t.

Sue Vertue confirms that Sherlock’s coat hasn't changed in series four. Steven Moffat insists it should never change.

Sharethrough (Mobile)

What are the episode titles?

‘The Six Thatchers’ (ep one), ‘The Lying Detective’ (ep two), and there’s a third, but they’ve kept the name a secret.

The titles are inspired by original Sherlock Holmes story titles ‘The Adventure of the Dying Detective’ and ‘The Adventure of the Six Napoleons’

What’s going to happen?

This is all quite mysterious at the moment, but in the original stories, ‘The Adventure of the Dying Detective’ sees Sherlock fake his own illness in order to get a criminal to admit to murder. In ‘The Six Napoleons’, Holmes stops a man who smashes busts of Napoleon in search of the black pearl of the Borgias.

Are there any new trailers?

You can see the teaser trailer for the new series below. “Did you miss me?” says Moriarty in the opening shot. Sherlock grumbles, “Something’s coming. Maybe it’s Moriarty, maybe it’s not.”

The trailer is action packed, almost James Bond-like.

Who’s starring in the new series?

Leads Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) and Martin Freeman (John Watson) will be returning, along with some new additions.

Toby Jones as villainous Culverton Smith
Toby Jones will be joining the cast to play one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock villains. An image purporting to be Jones’ CV has been doing the rounds on Twitter, and claims to reveal that he will be playing Culverton Smith.

There are no details yet on AJ’s character, and Dhawan’s representatives have refused to comment on the rumours. The character of AJ could be a reference to A.J Raffles, a fictional cricketer and “gentleman thief” of the eponymous short stories written by E.W. Hornung, Conan Doyle’s brother in law. The character is considered an “inversion” of Holmes.

Who’s writing and directing the new series?

There will be a different director for every episode of the upcoming series. Rachel Talalay (Ghost in the Machine, The Wind in the Willows) will direct ‘The Six Thatchers’, Nick Hurran (Doctor Who, It’s A Boy Girl Thing) will direct ‘The Lying Detective’, and Ben Caron (Derren Brown, Skins) will direct episode three (title TBC).